Arrived in Barcelona after a long transatlantic flight that included a transamerican leg. After hopping off the plane we take the train to Barcelona and hop in a cab down the coast to our hotel in Santa Susanna after a few directional misadventures since we don’t have the exact address, and our cabbie has never been there.

Settle in and eat a nice lunch which consisted mostly of paella for myself and then kick it at the hotel and chat with delegates from the Czech Republic and Russia as well as Pia Marlen from Norway and her friend Monica. Pia is competing this weekend and Monica is there for support and will be competing next week in the nationals in Norway.

One thing they have here is that when you check into a hotel, your room key also controls the power in your room so you have to insert your key in the wall or else you won’t have power – same goes for using the bathrooms, etc. Clever for the hotel to control electricity costs and access, but it sucks if you want to charge stuff in your room while you are out. Meals are included with room rates which I can’t decide if that’s good or not yet. Of course here there are barely any other options on where to eat, so I’ll say it’s a good thing so far…

Sunset on the Mediterranean coast is warm and the temperature is perfect, a nice warmup to an exciting weekend.